The overlooked musician Kate Bush felt Britain was desperate for: “He’s so new”
There’s something magnetic about Kate Bush. The legendary singer has earned her reputation through a number of factors. Bush was a true original, rarely sitting still in her position and waiting for plaudits; she pushed her creative style into every new direction she could find and, because of it, attracted an audience of like-minded individuals who respected her willingness to evolve her art.
There is an air that surrounds the work of Bush which, despite being perfumed with the literary worlds she has leapt between, speckled with the ethereal glow of her resistance to conform and enlightened by the devotion to her craft, is all together welcoming. It can feel like a singular and unique vision, but the truth is that she has always leaned on others to make her music truly memorable. It has meant that, across the years, she has often shed light on artists whom she feels deserve more recognition.
When speaking to ZigZag in 1980, near the beginning of the world’s fascination with her, Bush opened up about a roster of artists whom she keeps on regular rotation in her ream of records. “Stevie Wonder, reggae, Bowie, early Roxy, Steely Dan, rock-jazz,” she explained. While it’s hard to hear much reggae in Bush’s work, one artist was clearly a favourite: David Bowie.
A longtime inspiration to Bush, she noted when he passed away in 2016: “David Bowie had everything. He was intelligent, imaginative, brave, charismatic, cool, sexy and truly inspirational both visually and musically. He created such staggeringly brilliant work, yes, but so much of it and it was so good,” she explained with a seemingly endless amount of appreciation. “There are great people who make great work but who else has left a mark like his? No one like him,” Bush concluded.
At the time, Bowie’s influence had grown to a fever pitch and the hectic 1970s had delivered some of Bowie’s finest work. However, Bush also picked out another legend when posed the question by ZigZag: “Captain Beefheart“. The artist remains one of music’s most enigmatic figures, crafting a legacy of avant-garde brilliance that has influenced generations of artists.
Bush said of him at the time: “He’s so new. I’m really surprised that the English market at the moment won’t let him in, because he’s brilliant. He’s not mad at all, it’s perfectly real. I’m sure he’s in touch with Mars or something.”
Of course, his seminal debut LP Trout Mask Replica would arrive in 1969, but its impact had been resigned to the few who had bought it in the US. As the LP landed in the UK, countless artists took inspiration from it. Beefheart’s music was uncompromising, a cacophony of twisted rhythms and unorthodox arrangements that demanded both attention and interpretation. His approach—eschewing conventional structures in favour of abstract storytelling—finds a curious kinship with Bush.
The duo align on a number of songwriting facets, with their abstract poetics finding home within albums that defy musical norms to evolve their sound. But, in reality, their most obvious similarity is their willingness to push their music forward into new spaces and thumb their nose in the face of those who discredit them for it.
